A $1.4 Million Extramarital Affair Can't Be Blamed on One Store

The luxury retailer Neiman Marcus is being sued by a former prolific shopper whose husband used her credit and her personal shopper to finance an affair with one of the store's employees. He bought his mistress $1.4 million in luxury items that his wife was unable to return.

Much as I feel for Patricia Walker, this seems more like a personal vendetta (which I can't blame her for) than a case with merit.

They were a married couple and her husband said the gifts were for Walker. How is the store responsible?

Advertisement

This seems to happen so often in affairs. The person who is cheated on desperately wants to blame someone other than the spouse who cheated. And while I get that, it makes no sense.

It isn't a store's responsibility to make sure a man isn't cheating any more than it is a woman's responsibility not to sleep with a married man. It's the person in the relationship who is solely responsible for his actions.

All these lawsuits trying to blame someone else for a person's cheating ways are crazy talk. Sure, a woman can entice a man and turn him on, but if someone steps out on their marriage, THEY are to blame.

This lawsuit may have some merit given it was able to fly at all, but it also seems like there is some element of shifting the blame from the husband to the store and its employee. Sure, it's a shady and sleazy situation, but it isn't Neiman's fault.

A marital affair is ultimately not anyone's business. Sure, I would look down on it and find it gross, but it isn't my place to stop it or to say no. It's impossible to know someone else's situation.

In an affair, there are only two people to blame and neither of them is outside the marriage.